(Fighting New Coronary Pneumonia) Merkel reviews Germany's insufficient anti-epidemic calls for fair distribution of vaccines
China News Agency, Berlin, January 26 (Reporter Peng Dawei) German Chancellor Angela Merkel reviewed Germany's performance in fighting the new crown pneumonia epidemic over the past year on the 26th. He said that Germany has learned its own shortcomings and strengths from the epidemic. Among them, the response is slow, Digital lag is the main weakness exposed by the epidemic.
She also urged that despite the current shortage of new crown vaccines, we should continue to promote its fair distribution.
Merkel made these remarks in a video speech at the World Economic Forum "Davos Agenda" Dialogue in Berlin that day.
Merkel stated that Germany “has also made mistakes” at the beginning of the epidemic, including reflexively adopting a “go it alone” approach, but since then, Germany has learned how to better respond to the epidemic through cooperation.
She said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany’s speed of response measures was very unsatisfactory. “Many procedures often fall into too much bureaucracy and last too long. In this regard, we still need to improve.”
Secondly, German society still has shortcomings in terms of digitalization.
Merkel pointed out that during the epidemic, there were obstacles to the networking of health departments in various regions.
When measures are taken to close primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, the education system also faces bottlenecks in developing distance education.
To this end, the German government has included digitalization in its economic recovery plan for the post-epidemic period.
Despite the shortcomings, Merkel also emphasized several strengths in Germany's response to the epidemic: solid financial fundamentals, strong medical and health system resilience, and sufficient scientific research expenditure to support vaccine research and development.
On the same day, Merkel once again called on the international community to promote the fair distribution of vaccines.
She expressed gratitude that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization's "New Coronary Pneumonia Vaccine Implementation Plan" (COVAX) has received support from many countries, and hoped that all countries actively fulfill their commitments.
She said that multilateral cooperation is equally important to defeating the epidemic. The experience at the beginning of the epidemic has shown that adopting a closed method will not help solve the problem.
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